This time, there were three people between UFC fighters Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, and two LAPD officers backstage. Just in case Jones and Cormier had any ideas for another brawl.

One day earlier and a national slew of publicity, interviews and apologies later, Jones and Cormier were in the same room together without fighting with their hands, just words this time. The tension was still was palpable.

Jones, the UFC light heavyweight champion, sat on a stool on the far left, and Cormier on the far right with an interviewer and two other fighters between them at Tuesday’s Club Nokia promotional event for the Sept. 27 light heavyweight division title.

Jones jokingly picked up his stool as though he was going to heave it across stage, and Cormier didn’t move a muscle, saying he’d wait for the police officers to do their job.

The two brawled on stage at the MGM in Las Vegas on Monday. Jones, at 6-foot-4, is 5 inches taller than Cormier. Jones lowered his forehead to touch Cormier’s, and Cormier took exception to that. Cormier pushed Jones by the throat, Jones threw a punch and the shenanigans were in full force. As they fell, so did the stage backdrop, and one UFC employee tweaked his back in the fracas.

Luckily for everyone involved, no one was hurt. Not fans, employees or the fighters themselves.

Whether the fighters will be fined by UFC is still under review, according to a UFC spokesman.

Cormier lost his phone and a shoe in the scrum, both of which were retrieved. Jones lost his sunglasses, and although mangled, he got those back, too.

A fight before the fight certainly wasn’t scripted and not acceptable. Lorenzo Fertitta, the CEO and co-owner of UFC, called both fighters, and they said he expressed his displeasure for their roles in the brawl.

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Both were apologetic Tuesday. Both talked with reporters in separate rooms before having to share the same stage. Both went to their respective schools and didn’t shake hands or glare at each other nose-to-nose.

The biggest hit was the splash of television interviews and a spot on Good Morning America.

They went back and forth in an interview on Fox, and the two fighters rehashed a similar verbal bout Tuesday. Cormier stood up and repeatedly said:”`Can I finish? Can I finish? Can I talk? Can I talk?” He kept repeating it, mocking Jones, and Jones started grooving to his beat, pretending Cormier was rapping.

Cormier, who is 15-0 and never lost a fight or even a round, dropped a couple of f-bombs, and Jones reminded him there were children there. The bruhaha had Cormier reminiscing about his childhood in Louisiana, where he said he dealt with bad kids and bad people.

“It took me back to when I was a kid and got picked on,” Cormier said. “It throws me back there. I just reacted. … I don’t like it. It’s not good for the sport. We both have good families. Our families don’t deserve for their kids to be acting that way. I can’t promise that if it happened like that again I wouldn’t react the very same way.

“As a fighter I expect for him to react like he did. It escalated way too fast. I’m not proud of it.”

He said he wasn’t proud of some of the things he and Jones (20-1) said to each other when they were off air but still mic’d up for an interview Monday night. “They were some of the nastiest things. I’m so happy that will never get out in public.”

We heard plenty insults. Imagine what we haven’t heard.

One thing that concerned Jones was that one of those children was his 6-year-old daughter, Leah, whom he said he was trying to teach about morals. He said she hadn’t seen the video. Asked how he would explain that to her, Jones said: “I would tell her the best thing to do is walk away. But I was taught when someone puts their hands on you, things change. You have the right to defend yourself.”

Jones did watch the tape, said the first thing he was watching for was to determine who won. He said he did. Cormier mocked him Tuesday for thinking they were in a fight. Cormier called what they did “flailing.”

“To some viewers, that was classless,” Jones said. “To others, viewers were thinking, `This is what I pay for.’ Some people pay to watch me do my job, which is be a jerk and beat up guys.”

Just not at promotional events.

That brawl before the fight should make this one of the most anticipated UFC bouts.